The S&P 500 is flat on the session today as of this writing, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it has traded at record highs in each of the past three sessions. As shown below, the S&P 500 has seen several significant drawdowns in its history, but it has always eventually recovered, and it has traded at or within 1% of an all-time high just as often as it has been down 20%.

Below we break down the percentage of time the S&P 500 has traded within various ranges of an all-time high (ATH) since 1952 when the five-day trading week began. This week joins the 7% of days that have seen the S&P 500 hitting record highs. That is the third largest share behind the 12% of days in which the index has been within 1% of a record high and the 8.5% of days when it is 1% to 2% below a record close. Expanding out a bit more, the S&P 500 has spent 44% of trading days since 1952 within 5% of an ATH compared to just 40.5% of the time when the index has been down 10% or more from an ATH.

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